


Out There Somewhere

by nascence



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 09:03:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/784266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nascence/pseuds/nascence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Heroic Origins, Troy and Abed take another look at the Crazy Quilt of Destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out There Somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> I was expecting this to turn into h/c, but I'm told it's cute, so I probably failed.

-

Present

Apartment 303, Blanket Fort

-

“Hey Abed?”

“Yeah?” Abed leans over the edge of his loft bed to look at Troy, who's lounging in the chair underneath with his laptop.

“About that Crazy Quilt of Destiny. How come you and I didn't have any superhero origin moments? I mean, we're the best.” 

“You mean beside you hitting me in the head with a Greendale recruitment flyer at Yogurtsburgh.”

“Oh, yeah,” Troy says. “Sorry.”

“Why?” Abed asks. “Chang might not have handed me a flier otherwise, and I wouldn't have decided to come to Greendale. We would have never met. You should be happy.”

“I'm not!” Troy says, standing up and hitting his head. He takes a moment to rub it, and hears Abed moving around. “Ow! I'm ok.” He comes out from under the bed. Now he and Abed are looking at each other. 

Abed tilts his head.

“We're us. We're best friends. I don't know, I just thought our origin thing would be cooler! Like, I don't know, something cool,” he finishes lamely. Why can't his brain be close to his mouth when he actually needs it?

But of course Abed can read his mind.

“Oh,” Abed says. He comes down from the loft bed. “You know, I never got to finish explaining the Quilt,” he says.

He spreads out the Crazy Quilt of Destiny out on the floor of the Blanket Fort. “Our timelines are more interconnected than you think,” he says. “The first place I checked was the records for my dad's restaurant.”

-

1998

Abed's dad's restaurant

-

“Troy Barnes, stand up straight! We are in public.” His dad grabs his arm and drags him to his feet. Troy's Spiderman toy (action figure) is abandoned on the floor.

Forced to wait in line, Troy can only hope he'll get to grab his toy after Dad gets his fawaffles. Troy may only be eight years old but he knows how to listen.

There's a tap on his shoulder and he turns around. An older boy holds out Troy's Spiderman, and Troy takes it.

“Thanks,” he says, because Nana taught him his manners.

“Batman is cooler,” the boy says.

“No way!” Troy says. “Spiderman is!”

“Troy!” his dad shouts. “Behave yourself. 

“Sorry,” Troy says. The other boy runs off, leaving Troy with his Spiderman toy. Which is totally cooler than Batman is. Probably.

-

Present

Apartment 303, Blanket Fort

-

“Woah!” Troy says. “Falafel is waffles? I had no idea.”

“No, Troy.”

-

2006

Clothes dryer

-

Well this was a new experience. Somehow he'd always underestimated the amount of space inside these things. He wouldn't have expected to fit inside. But then again, people on police procedurals were hiding bodies in these things all the time, weren't they?

He was going to have to figure out how to get out.

There were footsteps. Probably one of the laundromat workers come to see what all the fuss was about. Abed managed to twist himself around so he could see. 

“Are you okay?” 

Oh. It was a guy about his age, maybe a few years younger. He grabbed Abed's arms and managed to help him climb out and get to his feet. “Do you work here?” Abed asked.

“Uh, no,” the guy said, “I was just picking up my nana's laundry... what were you even doing in there?”

“I spent all my money on ice cream.” That wasn't how he'd gotten in the clothes dryer – the guys from school had done that, and they'd also presumably left in the car, which meant that with no money he had no way of getting home. 

“Well here.” The guy dug in his pocket and gave Abed a five dollar bill. “I don't have change, sorry.”

“Your wallet has Batman on it,” Abed says.

“Well yeah,” the guy says, “Batman's kind of the best.”

-

Present

Apartment 303, Blanket Fort

-

“Aw man, I remember that wallet. I lost it during our St. Patrick's Day Adventure, though. It's at the bottom of a lake somewhere.” Troy looks momentarily sad. 

Then his brain catches up with his ears.“Wait! That guy was you? Woah.” His eyes get wide – this is wrinkling my brain wide, not Actor LeVar Burton wide. “Your Crazy Quilt of Destiny is officially awesome.”

They do their handshake.

“Hey, wanna watch the new Inspector Spacetime?” Abed says.

“Do you have to ask?” Troy replies.

Annie gets home from buying groceries fifteen minutes later and finds them sitting together in the blanket fort, glued to a laptop screen as Inspector Spacetime plays.


End file.
